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Discover Inner Book Beauty With Blind Date With a Book

In today’s profile picture-laden, swipe-happy dating scene, blind dating seems to have fallen out of favor. Sure, actually having a visual of the person you’re going to spend an afternoon at the mall or an evening at Putt-Putt (or whatever people do on dates nowadays; I’ve clearly been out of the game for a while) with is helpful and comforting, but if you get too caught up in style, you may miss out on substance.

The same is true of books. We’re all guilty of judging by covers sometimes, and publishers know it. Many a mediocre book has been masked with a snazzy, eye-catching cover, and we fall for it again and again. Conversely, there are plenty of great books, especially classics, with not-so-comely covers that we may pass over and miss out on if we let appearances sway us. For instance, I never would have read Pet Sematary or One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest if I got hung up on their less-than-hunky covers, and they turned out to be two of my favorite books. True beauty comes from within, man.

The library is here to help you take looks out of the matchmaking equation with our fourth annual “Blind Date With a Book” display. We’ve selected a stimulating lineup of eligible book bachelors and bachelorettes and concealed their identities with wrapping paper, so you can’t make your decision based on whether you think a book is hawt or not; your selections must be made purely on the perceived merits of each book’s dating profile, which contains its age, appearance, hometown, interests, turnoffs, a statement about what the two of you will share together, and a succinct summation of its character. Here’s an example:

Once you find a book you’d like to get to know better, check it out, take it home, unwrap it, and enjoy experiencing its inner beauty, wisdom, humor, and other virtues of its essence. Maybe your book bae will have a gorgeous exterior, maybe it won’t, but what do you care? You’re not in this to pick up arm or coffee table candy; you’re after something deep and meaningful. Even if you do end up with a date you find to be more sizzle than steak, that’s cool, too; there’s no judgment here, and we’ll gladly facilitate bookmances of all types, from the flings you’ll forget mere days after you’ve read them, to the everlasting loves whose pages you’ll visit and draw sustenance from repeatedly throughout your lifetime.